Dymocks Booklovers 101 best books

I was shopping at Dymocks yesterday and saw this stand. I liked a lot of the titles I saw, and decided that may indicate I might like the rest, so I set myself a challenge to work my way through the entire list. There are a few anomalies, of course, and I am sure I won't love them all, but the ones I have read, I've mostly enjoyed, so I am using that as an indicator. I believe Dymocks are compiling another list of the same at the moment.

In no particular order the 2011 list is as follows. I have highlighted the ones I have read in red.


1. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
2. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury Ray
4. Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
6. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
7. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
8. The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do
9. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
10. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
11. On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
12. Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
13. The Shadow Of The Wind by Zafon Carlos
14. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
15. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer
16. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
17. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
18. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
19. The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
20. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
21. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
22. Breath by Tim Winton
23. Life of Pi by Martel Yann
24. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
25. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
26. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
27. Magician by Raymond E Feist
28. Spare Room by Helen Garner
29. Persuasion by Jane Austen
30. The Millennuim Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
31. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
32. Emma by Jane Austen
33. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
34. My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult
35. Middlemarch by Eliot George
36. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
37. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
38. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
39. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
40. Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon
41. The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay
42. The Elegance Of The Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
43. Wolf Hall by Mantel Hilary
44. Tomorrow When The War Began series by John Marsden
45. Mists of Avalon by Bradley Marion
46. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
47. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
48. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
49. Ice Station by Matthew Reilly
50. Lord of The Flies by William Golding
51. The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
52. Seven Ancient Wonders by Matthew Reilly
53. Lord Of The Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien
54. The Bronze Horseman by Paullina SImons
55. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
56. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
57. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
58. The Bible
59. Small Island by Andrea Levy
60. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
61. Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
62. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
63. Marley and Me by John Grogan
64. Atonement by Ian McEwan
65. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
66. People Of The Book by Geraldine Brooks
67. Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
68. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
69. Ransom by David Malouf
70. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
71. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
72. Dracula by Bram Stoker
73. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
74. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 
75. Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons
76. Tully by Paullina Simons
77. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
78. The Secret River by Kate Grenville
79. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
80. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
81. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
82. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M Auel
83. Host by Stephenie Meyer
84. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
85. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
86. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
87. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
88. A Fortunate Life by A.B.Facey
89. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
90. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
91. Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
92. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
93. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
94. The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody
95. Maos Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
96. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
97. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
98. Possession by A.S. Byatt
99. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
100. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
101. Room by Emma Donoghue

The blue is the book I am currently reading. Some thoughts on some I have read - some of my all time faves are in there, The Power Of One is my favorite book ever. Has been since I first read it at 15. I have re read the Tomorrow series by Marsden at least 7 times and it never loses its ability to engage, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas made me 'feel' like no other book has. It caused terror and panic, it was brilliant. The Twilight series is terribly written and I was distressed to see another Meyer book on the list for me to tackle. I don't do fantasy, I am in trouble with this list. Prove me wrong, books, prove me wrong. Still Alice is another fantastic book. 

There are some books on the list I have been meaning to get to for a while, and I am really looking forward to reading them, such as The Slap, Almost French, Marley & Me, The Help, and the one I am reading now - We Need To Talk About Kevin. Some are classics I should have read but haven't, and I think they are one of those 'everyone should read in their lifetime' things, like Nineteen Eighty-Four, A Fortunate Life, War and Peace, Lord of The Rings etc. And no, watching the movies doesn't count!

I dread Shantaram. Have you seen the size of that tome?! Looking forward to adding some of these to my favorite books. Now if you'll excuse me, I've a book to bury myself in.